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KP says: The Cure - Forum, Copenhagen, Denmark - 2008-02-13 - Live   Rating: Rating: 5/6   
Updated: 2008-02-14 19:40:39    Type:  concert review     English  View Comment Details   
The Cure - Forum, Copenhagen, Denmark - 2008-02-13 - Live (concert review)
Forum is killing good sound

Forum in Copenhagen is notoriously wellknown for killing good sound and it was no different this time around. But since it was to be expected and since it has very little to do with The Cure's performance then let's forget about that for now. Let's also forget about the annoying habit of the huge number of smoking morons going to live gigs in Denmark without respecting the "no smoking" signs, and let's focus on tonight's live gig.

Support: 65 Days of Static

The support band "65 Days of Static" can best be described as being awful. Chaotic, no melodies, no vocal and very annoying. End of that story. Only highlight was when Robert Smith had a listen to the last piece of noise from the right side of the stage.

Duration: Just over 3 hours

We knew beforehand that we were in for a 3 hours show and we also had a pretty good idea of which songs to expect judging from the Oslo and Stockholm setlists. There should be enough in the mix to please both the hardcore fans and the casual fans with preference for pop hits. Noone had to be disappointed.

Lineup: Robert Smith (vocals, guitar), Simon Gallup (bass), Jason Cooper (drums), Porl Thompson (guitar)

The lineup without a keyboard player had obviously changed some of the arrangements a bit and while it did both good and bad to certain songs it was different and interesting to hear. A song like why can't I be you? is impossible to perfom without keyboard and it didn't work at all. close to me was not exactly perfect but still very interesting. Electro pop songs like let's go to bed, the walk and primary worked perfectly without keyboard.

The Mainset

plainsong, prayers for rain, fascination street, alt.end, the walk, the end of the world, lovesong, to wish impossible things, pictures of you, lullaby, from the edge of the deep green sea, please project, push, inbetween days, just like heaven, primary, a boy i never knew, us or them, never enough, wrong number, signal to noise, one hundred years, disintegration.

The main set that lasted for 2 hours (without a single break!) included 7 songs from "Disintegration" and that will never be a bad thing in my book. Not all of the songs were performed in their best versions but Robert's singing in prayers for rain was amazingly powerful and pictures of you was as great as ever heard. I will never become tired of listening to the ultimate The Cure song from the edge of the deep green sea and we even had the pleasure of another "Wish" track with the wonderful to wish impossible things. Other highlights in the mainset were a phenomenal push that really made the crowd rock and the incredible, amazing, dark, cold and great one hundred years. It was also much joy hearing a rare track like wrong number live: "Hello...Hello...Hello?" I loved every second.

Encore 1

at night, m, play for today, a forest.

The breaks between the mainset and the 3 encores were about 5 minutes each and the first encore had highlights with play for today including the enjoyable crowd singalong and one of the best The Cure songs ever a forest with the outstanding bass player Simon Gallup in full effect. That man is simply fucking cool. He is just as important a piece of The Cure's unique sound as Robert Smith. And that says a lot.

Encore 2

let's go to bed, freak show, close to me, why can't I be you?

The second encore had new song freak show and old classic close to me as highlights. The not so great (without keyboards) why can't i be you? was last track.

Encore 3

boys don't cry, jumping someone else's train, grinding halt, 10.15 saturday night, killing an arab.

Last and third encore was a trip back to the pop-punk days of The Cure. It was actually really entertaining and full of energy. Especially grinding halt kicked major ass but 10.15 saturday night was certainly cool as well. Last song of the night killing an arab was introduced by Robert Smith as "This one is for Denmark" and I had a hard time making out if he was being sarcastic or near rude. In fact I had a damn hard time understanding anything he said during the evening. He is not speaking the easiest understandable english. But well, he didn't talk that much so it didn't matter a lot.

Lights, colors and sound

The lighting setup was really cool and provided a lot of visually cool stuff to look at with image and photo projections. The design and colors changed to match the various albums and songs. As previously mentioned good sound and Forum don't mix. However the sound system seemed to be ok and furthermore it was perfectly loud enough. No 85dB EU bullshit at this gig.

3 new songs

The Cure played 3 new songs (new to me at least): a boy i never knew, please project and freak show. Especially freak show sounded promising but it is hard to judge new songs from a single live performance. I'll wait till I hold the new album in my hands.

A night to remember

It was a night to remember and a great way to celebrate my birthday in style. We had tons of old classics. We had dark despair and lighter pop hits. We had a great band that gave us all they had to give. The Cure once again proved (as if they really had to) that they are an outstanding live band and that they have made far more great songs than most bands can possibly dream of.
 
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